Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, 13 November 2010

AFTER AN intensive conference experience at Old Maps & New, arriving at Eden Court on Saturday afternoon was like a shower of rain in the desert. The whole building was filled with a buzz of energy as people of all ages (the website said from 4 to 104 but there were babes in arms as well) swarmed from cafe to theatre and back again.

The reason was Family Day from the excellent Love Music Festival, who had brought forty musicians from literally all over the world to perform and run workshops as a spectacular finale to their extended event. Some of the performances were free, some were modestly priced, but all were exhilarating.

The Balkan Mash in the OneTouch Theatre began with the genial, laconic Creaking Tree String Quartet’s Canadian country tunes, delivered at top speed in spacious arrangements wrapped around an enchanting string take on Ravel’s Sonatine, originally for piano.

Creaking Tree Quartet (photo by Mike Bouchard)

Sweden’s Jonny Axelsson’s avant garde percussion piece by South African composer Kevin Volans ran the gamut from thunderous rumbles to loud staccato raps and taps. The closing set from Kolektif Istanbul was a glorious tapestry of Turkish music on accordion, Bulgarian bagpipes or gayda (presumably related to the gaita of Galicia at the other end of the Mediterranean), clarinet and saxophone.

Two of the band’s musicians had not managed to sort visas out in time – it is unfair that musicians are not accorded special treatment by the UK Border Agency while dancers are – but even at two thirds’ strength the Kolektif still packed a heady punch.

Swedish percussionist Jonny Axelsson

This was followed by a mash-up of all the musicians – however, in common with several others this reviewer crept out in order to witness the legend that is Huun Huur Tu performing for free in the upstairs foyer, having performed as part of one of the programmes in the OneTouch earlier in the day.

Mongolian tribes have roamed across their steppes on horseback for thousands of years; Huun Huur Tu’s first album was called 60 Horses in My Herd and their instruments feature horsehair, as in the bow of the lute-like igil, and horseskin drawn tight across its pine or larch frame, although the tungur or shaman’s drum, we discovered, uses the skin of a mountain lion [not very ecologically sound! – Ed.]

Small children danced happily in front of the dais where the quartet, wearing Mongolian kimonos over everyday clothes, introduced us to the art of throat-singing, whereby a singer produces both a deep vibrating drone note and one or two overtones which may sound like a flute, a whistle, a bird or, as in this case, a ghostly whisper.

Their music, based closely on Tuvan folk tunes but with modern influences, has much in common with that of the Gaeltachd, particularly a haunting love ballad which could have come straight out of an island Feis. Love Music Festival proved, yet again, that music is a universal language.

© Jennie Macfie, 2010

Links

• Love Music Festival